Sunday, February 28, 2016

Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives John Boehner was back in Washington Friday to weigh in on the Iranian elections currently underway and urge the Obama administration to speak out in support of the the Iranian people, The Hill reported.

"[Iranians] need to hear the people of the United States stands with them, not with the regime," he said at a speech hosted by the Organization of Iranian-American Communities.

Boehner criticized the elections as "a phony attempt to prop up an ailing regime."

"They're not really elections," he said. "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."

Boehner said the administration missed an opportunity in the 2009 Iranian presidential elections to stand with the protestors, who were subsequently crushed by the regime.

"We avoided that opportunity," he said.

Boehner also blasted the Obama administration for inking a "flawed" nuclear deal with Tehran that he said the president "rammed through" with little support that "rewards the Iranian regime."

"It's a regime that will use the windfall of money to threaten neighbors ... and supply militants with weapons intended to kill Americans," he said.

"I wish I could say my concerns have been eased since leaving office," said Boehner, who retired from Congress late last year.

Boehner said the deal supplied the regime under the mullahs' Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei with "political and financial oxygen."

"President Obama refused to listen [and] ignored the concerns of the American people," he said. "It's such a bad deal, the Ayatollah won't even have to cheat to be steps away from having a nuclear weapon."

He also criticized the Obama administration for paying Iran's regime $1.7 billion on the same day Tehran released four political prisoners.

"Real change in Iran cannot be achieved in billion-dollar payments and one-sided deals," he said.

The Iranian elections are ‘a sham’, the exiled leader of the resistance, Maryam Rajavi has said.Speaking in Paris on Saturday, Mrs. Rajavi said the majority of young people in Iran had boycotted the elections.She said: “On 26 February, the mullahs held a sham election. The so-called election did not mean to elect the people’s representatives, but it was a competition between the incumbent and former officials in charge of torture and executions.“This puts an end to the myth of moderation in this regime. Therefore this sham election was rejected and boycotted by most of the Iranian youth.”Of the 12,123 candidates who were nominated as potential candidates, almost half were cut by the Guardian Council, with 6,300 of them – including 586 women – allowed to stand for election for the Majlis and 166 candidates, all male, put forward for the Assembly of Experts.

According to Shahindokht Molaverdi, the vice president for women and family affairs every man in an Iranian village has reportedly been executed by the government on drug charges. “We have a village in Sistan and Baluchestan (province) where every single man has been executed,” Shahindokht Molaverdi, the vice president for women and family affairs told the Mehr news agency.“Today their children are potential drug traffickers; either because they will seek revenge for the deaths of their fathers or because they will need to financially provide for their families, as a result of lack of support by the government.”Sistan and Baluchistan in south east part of IranIt was unclear when the men in the unnamed village died or whether the executions were carried out at once or over an extended period of time.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Jihadist opposition groups in Syria claimed to have set off a car bomb at a Russian military base outside Latakia, killing several Russian generals, the Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the Ahrar al-Sham opposition group said that its fighters, along with members of Bayan movement and jihadists inside the Russian base, detonated the car bomb after spotting a gathering of senior Russian officers at the base, the report said.

The spokesperson claimed “dozens of generals” were killed and injured in the attack, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The attack took place a few days ago, but the announcement was delayed until Wednesday to allow the bombers time to retreat to opposition-controlled territories, the report said.

The Kremlin has not commented on the report.

The announcement came three days before a Russian- and U.S.-brokered cease-fire is scheduled to begin between the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his political opponents.

The cease-fire excludes the Islamic State, al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra and other groups designated as “terrorist” by the United Nations.

MOSCOW, February 24. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has held a telephone conversation with President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani, the Kremlin press service reported on Wednesday.

"They focused on the Syrian problems, in particular the discussion of the initiatives and proposals contained in the Joint Statement of Russia and the United States on the cessation of hostilities in Syria", the Kremlin said.

The two countries’ leaders stressed the importance of the further joint work of Russia and Iran on the Syrian settlement issues, including the continuation of the decisive fight against the Islamic State, Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist organizations put on the UN Security Council’s sanctions list.

Earlier on Wednesday, President Putin held telephone conversations with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

On Monday evening, Russia and the United States issued a joint statement saying that the ceasefire regime in Syria would take effect on February 27 at 00:00, Damascus time (01:00, Moscow time). To this end, all the warring sides should comply with the conditions specified in the statement. Russia and the United States assume the obligation to influence the close to them political forces in Syria for achieving a truce.

The statement says that the cessation of hostilities is to be applied to all parties to the Syrian conflict but for Daesh (the Arabic acronym for Islamic State) and Jabhat an-Nusra (both are banned in Russia) "or other terrorist organizations designated by the UN Security Council." Airstrikes on them will be continued.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the agreement, with his special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura saying he was ready to support implementation of the accords either rights on the spot in Damascus or from Geneva.

According to the UN statistics, fighting between Syrian government troops and militants has killed over 220,000 people and displaced millions since its start in 2011. Gangs of militants making part of various armed formations, the most active of them being the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organizations, fight government troops.

Russia’s Aerospace Forces started delivering pinpoint strikes in Syria at facilities of the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organizations, which are banned in Russia, on September 30, 2015, on a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad. The air group initially comprised over 50 aircraft and helicopters, including Sukhoi Su-24M, Su-25SM and state-of-the-art Su-34 aircraft. They were deployed to the Khmeimim airbase in the province of Latakia.

On October 7, 2015, four missile ships of the Russian Navy’s Caspian Flotilla fired 26 Kalibr cruise missiles (NATO codename Sizzler) at militants’ facilities in Syria. On October 8, the Syrian army passed to a large-scale offensive.

In mid-November 2015, Russia increased the number of aircraft taking part in the operation in Syria to 69 and involved strategic bombers in strikes at militants. Targets of the Russian aircraft include terrorists’ gasoline tankers and oil refineries. Russia’s aircraft have made thousands of sorties since the start of the operation in Syria. Moscow has repeatedly said that Russia plans no ground operation in Syria.

SIMFEROPOL, February 20. /TASS/. Crimea has announced alert regime as the republic may face water shortage, the republic’s government said on its website on Saturday.

Crimea’s head Sergey Aksenov ordered all emergencies authorities and services to be prepared for the possible water shortage. Specially organized headquarters will solve the task of "providing drinking and technical water to Kerch, Feodosiya (cities) and the Lenin district," the order reads.

In 2014, Ukraine stopped water supplies from the Dnipro River to fill water reservoirs in Crimea.

In late January, Crimea’s water authority reported the republic’s all water reservoirs were full and the stock of water would be sufficient for the heating and the resort seasons. However, the reservoirs, which are filled naturally, are 50-70% full, the authority said.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

DAMASCUS – The Syrian government criticized on Wednesday U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for his statements that “contradict the truth” about a hypothetical partition of Syria if the cease-fire scheduled for Saturday fails.

In a statement published by the Syrian Arab News Agency, or SANA, a Syrian Foreign Ministry official said that “Syria condemns these statements which contradict the truth and serve to hide his country’s responsibility for what Syria is exposed to from the crimes perpetrated by the terrorist groups.”

On Tuesday, Kerry told the U.S. Senate that Washington would move to plan B, which would involve the division of Syria, if the truce between the United States and Russia in the Syrian territory did not materialize or if a transition to an interim government did not occur in the coming months.

For the Syrian Foreign Ministry “the United States, with its regional allies and tools, shoulders the responsibility of starting and continuing the crisis in Syria through its continuous support of terrorism, SANA reported.

The statement stressed that the Syrian people “are more determined to defeat terrorism, preserve Syria’s territorial integrity, national sovereignty and its national independent decision.”

TEHRAN – Iran’s Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that the enemies of his country are attempting to create a “false bipolarity to create discord” among the Iranian people.

Speaking to thousands of people in the Iranian city of Najafabad, the supreme leader said the plotters of “false bipolarity” are trying to show that there are pro-parliament and anti-parliament Iranians.

“The Iranian nation wants a parliament which is religious, committed, brave, not gullible, resistant against the arrogant powers’ excessive demands and greed,” he explained according to FARS news agency.

He pointed out that Iranian people need a parliament that will be a “defender of the national honor and independence, a real lover of the country’s progress” and is not “intimidated” by the United States.

Khamenei called on all people to go to the polling stations on Friday to elect the representatives of parliament and Assembly of Experts, in which about 55 million will vote.

A group of 32 people including an Iranian national who have been accused of spying for the Iranian regime’s Intelligence appeared before the Special Criminal Court in Riyadh on Sunday.

The court presented a list of accusations prepared by the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution (BIP) against the members of the cell that also includes Saudis and an Afghan national.

The spy ring divulged defense secrets and strove to carry out acts of sabotage in the kingdom, according to the Saudi Interior Ministry.

“They were accused of high treason against their country and the King by breaching their loyalty to the nation and setting up links with Iranian Intelligence and providing them with highly confidential information,” Saudi Gazette reported.

“The ring recruited people in government departments and trained them to send coded information to Iranian Intelligence.”

“Some of them also met Ali Khamenei,” the Iranian regime’s supreme leader, the report said.

The Iranian judiciary has finalized the death sentence that had been handed dwon to a young Kurdish man who was under the age of 18 at the time of attributed crime.

The country’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence issued for a young man by the name of Heyman Uraminezhad.

This young man is currently held in Sanandaj Central Prison waiting for his sentence to be carried out.

Heyman is currently 21 years old and was convicted on premeditated murder by the Sanandaj Prime Court.

Iran under the rule of the clerical regime is one of the leading executioners of juvenile offenders, Amnesty International said Monday.

In a new report, Amnesty International said last month that it had documented the execution of at least 73 juveniles in Iran from 2005 to 2015 and that 160 juvenile offenders are languishing on the country’s death row.

According to the Amnesty International, the report was based on information received from death-penalty opponents and human rights defenders in Iran, as well as from lawyers and relatives of juveniles convicted of capital crimes in Iran.

Now that Iran is emerging from an era of international sanctions and is seeking broader acceptance, Ms. Auerbach said, rights groups are hoping that the Iranian authorities “realize they have to act in accordance with international human rights standards.”

There have been over 2,300 executions in Iran since Hassan Rouhani has been in office, more than in any similar period in the past 25 years.

The victims include political dissidents like Gholamreza Khosravi, an activist of Iran’s principal opposition, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK) who was hanged solely for providing financial assistance to a satellite television station supporting the opposition.

On April 20, 2014 Rouhani described these executions as “God’s commandments” and “laws of the parliament that belongs to the people.”

The suspects belong to four bands using shell companies in small towns around Panama City, namely Juan Diaz, Parque Lefevre, Betania and Rio Abajo, “where they warehoused large shipments of drugs, to send them later to Central America, the United States and the Caribbean,” the ministry said in a statement.

The arrests and seizures were made in 30 anti-drug operations in the provinces of Panama Oeste, Colon, Veraguas and Chiriqui.

The National Police seized 3,368 kilograms of drugs and more than a million dollars in cash, and the Senan air-sea service seized 2,750 kg of narcotics and other drugs.

Meanwhile, the National Border Service seized 253 kg of cocaine and 39 packages of marijuana.

Of the total seizures, 4.5 tons consisted of cocaine and at least 1.3 tons consisted of pot.

Official figures reveal that 2015 was the biggest year in the past decade for drug seizures in Panama, with at least 58.1 tons confiscated, according to the latest government tally.

RIO DE JANEIRO – Civil Police in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro arrested Friday a 14-year-old boy accused of murdering Peruvian university professor Carlos Patricio Mercado Samanez, whose body was found with stab wounds, officials said.

The suspected murderer apparently confessed the homicide to his parents, who chose to notify the authorities, the G1 news Web site reported Friday.

The chief motive being weighed by police is that the slaying, which took place Monday afternoon when the professor went to take his dog for a walk, was the consequence of a robbery.

However, despite the arrest of the suspected murderer, his belongings have still not been found, so an investigation has been opened to determine whether someone else might have taken part in the crime.

Mercado Samanez, 62, has resided more than 30 years in Rio de Janeiro, teaching at the Pontifical Catholic University, or PUC, and Rio de Janeiro State University, or UERJ.

The Peruvian’s body was found in a canal at Quinta de Boa Vista, a park in the city’s downtown area with extensive green zones, and was taken to the medical examiners’ office, where his relatives identified him on Tuesday.

Mercado, who wrote several books on the mathematics of finance, was the coordinator of an industrial engineering program at the PUC and was an associate professor of economics at the UERJ.

The late professor earned an industrial engineering degree at the National University of San Marcos in Lima. He later received a master’s in production engineering and earned a doctorate in business administration, finance and economics.

MEXICO CITY – Prosecutors seized 438 kilos of cocaine that arrived in Manzanillo, a port in the western Mexican state of Colima, from Buenaventura, Colombia’s main Pacific port, the federal Attorney General’s Office said.

“The federal prosecutor in the area, with the support of law enforcement agents and investigators from the Criminal Investigations Agency (AIC), inspected three containers,” the AG’s office said in a statement.

Seven suitcases holding 363 bricks of cocaine, with a total weight of 438 kilos and 240 grams, were found in the containers, the AG’s office said.

“The items secured were retained by the federal prosecutor, who continues investigating” the drug case, the AG’s office said.

The Colima unit of the AG’s office worked with the marine corps and the SAT tax agency on the drug bust.

Cocaine shipments arriving from Buenaventura, Colombia, have been seized in the past in Manzanillo.

Officials seized 123 kilos of cocaine that arrived from the Colombian port city in August 2015.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Defense Department reported Friday that its bombing of an Islamic State camp this Friday in Libya was carried out after discovering the jihadists there “were planning external attacks on U.S. and other Western interests in the region.”

“The U.S. military conducted an airstrike in Libya targeting an ISIL (an alternate acronym for Islamic State) training camp near Sabratha and Noureddine Chouchane, a.k.a. ‘Sabir,’ a Tunisian national who was an ISIL senior facilitator in Libya associated with the training camp,” the department said in a statement.

“We took this action against Sabir and the training camp after determining that both he and the ISIL fighters at these facilities were planning external attacks on U.S. and other Western interests in the region,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters.

Cook recalled that Sabir was considered one of the suspects in perpetrating the deadly March 2015 attack on Tunisia’s Bardo Museum and has helped move potential foreign combatants affiliated with IS from Tunisia to Libya and other countries.

The U.S. attack left some 40 people dead, mostly Tunisians and Algerians, authorities in Libya said, adding that no Libyans were killed.

“This was an instance where we saw an opportunity to strike at ISIL in Libya and we carried out that strike and we feel confident this was a successful strike,” Cook said.

Tunisia together with France are the chief exporters of volunteers to IS, from where close to 5,000 combatants have emigrated to Syria and Iraq, according to official figures.

A large part of those who have returned to Tunisia have traveled on to Libya, where they have contributed to helping develop the branch of IS in that country.

MEXICO CITY – Moises Dagdug, a media owner, journalist and former federal lawmaker, was stabbed to death at his home in the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco in a suspected robbery, according to one of his associates, who told EFE that Dagdug had received threats.

The homicide occurred early Saturday at the 65-year-old Dagdug’s home in Villahermosa, Tabasco’s capital, with the assailants making off with the victim’s vehicle after killing him.

Dagdug was the owner of a radio station and a television news channel in Tabasco that was part of the Grupo VX media group, according to local media. He also hosted a show on that same radio station, XEVX La Grande de Tabasco, in which he was very critical of the current state governor, Arturo Nuñez Jimenez.

He recalled that Dagdug had received threats and indeed had publicly denounced them on his show, titled “De frente Tabasco,” adding that Tabasco was suffering “a public safety crisis.”

“He wasn’t afraid to say that he’d been threatened, that he was receiving constant threats. In fact, the criminals had entered his private home on a couple of occasions. He changed his security system, and indeed his lifestyle had changed dramatically,” the news director said.

Dagdug represented Tabasco in the national legislature between 2006 and 2009 as a member of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for the practice of journalism, with more than 100 members of the media having been killed since 2000, according to the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes against Freedom of Expression.

MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. Moscow calls on the United States and other NATO countries to show responsibility in choosing targets for their air strikes to avoid casualties among civilians, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a comment posted on the ministry’s website on Saturday.

"We call on the United States and other NATO countries to be responsible and discriminate in choosing targets, like the Russian aerospace forces are doing in Syria. There have been numerous reports about innocent civilians killed in NATO air strikes. The United States and its allies obviously must be guided by international law in conducting such operation. They should not act unilaterally but instead they must coordinate their steps with all members of the international community concerned," the document says.

"We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the officers of the Serbian embassy in Libya, Jovica Stepic and Sladjana Stankovic, who were killed as a result of the US’s air strike at a facility where they were kept as Islamic State hostages. These people were abducted on November 28, 2015. Belgrade was aware of their whereabouts and was in talks on their release," the Russian foreign ministry said.

Friday, February 19, 2016

TOKYO - Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani Friday asked China to give a "clearer and more convincing" explanation of its recent deployment of anti-aircraft missiles on an island in the disputed South China Sea.

Japan has confirmed the deployment, undertaken last week in Woody Island, through satellite images of the island and other sources, Nakatani told the press, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The minister also restated Tokyo's opposition to "unilateral actions to change the status quo" in the region, such as the construction of outposts and their use for military purposes, and stressed the unanimous concern of the international community about such actions.

Tokyo continues to collect information about Chinese activities in the South China Sea after the missile deployment, and feels the action will escalate tension in the region.

The defense minister also recalled Chinese President Xi Jinping's remarks about not militarizing the South China Sea during his visit to Washington in September last year.

The Paracel archipelago is controlled by China, however Taiwan and Vietnam stake claims of sovereignty over it.

The South China Sea region has witnessed escalated tensions since last year after it was revealed that Beijing has built military installations in islets and reefs in the Spratly Islands, partially controlled by China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia.

QUITO – A Mexican man who tried to smuggle 11 iguanas out of Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands has been sentenced by a judge to serve two years in prison and pay a fine of $20,000, Galapagos National Park said in a Twitter post Sunday.

Gustavo Eduardo Toledo Albarran was arrested last year when he tried to smuggle the marine and land iguanas out of Santa Cruz Island.

“The judge from the multi-jurisdiction unit in the district of Santa Cruz sentenced the citizen of Mexican nationality, Gustavo Eduardo Toledo Albarran, to two years in prison at the Guayaquil-Varones Social Rehabilitation Center ... where he is being held,” the national park said.

Toledo was arrested on Sept. 6, 2015, in Puerto Ayora “while carrying 11 native iguanas, including nine marine iguanas (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) and two land iguanas (Conolophus subcristatus), unique species in the world, in a backpack that belonged to him,” the national park said.

The Mexican citizen was charged with wildlife trafficking under Article 247 of the Ecuadorian Criminal Code.

Wildlife trafficking is the third most profitable illegal activity in the world, trailing only drug and arms trafficking, the Ecuadorian Environment Ministry said last year.

The crime is punishable by up to three years in prison in Ecuador.

The Galapagos Islands are located about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) west of the coast of continental Ecuador and were declared a World Natural Heritage Site in 1978.

Some 95 percent of the territory’s 8,000 sq. kilometers (a little over 3,000 sq. miles) constitutes a protected area that is home to more than 50 species of animals and birds found nowhere else on the planet.

The islands were made famous by 19th-century British naturalist Charles Darwin, whose observations of life on the islands contributed greatly to his theory of the evolution of species.

BERLIN – The alleged “honor killing” last month of a young pregnant woman who fled Syria after being gang raped is the latest case to leave Germans horrified by the crimes and customs of some of the refugees pouring in from the war-torn Middle East.

The woman, identified only as Rokstan M., fled Syria in 2011 after being gang-raped by Syrian soldiers and found work as an interpreter. After authorities in the small, eastern city of Dessau discovered her body, stabbed and buried behind a housing complex for Syrian refugees Friday, suspicion has focused on her father and brothers, who prosecutors believe may have killed her because the gang rape left her “unclean.”

“I don’t like the term ‘honor killing,’ Christian Preissner, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, told FoxNews.com on Thursday. But if the motive shows that it was an ‘honor killing,’ I will say it.”

The case has gripped much of the country, as details about Rokstan’s final days have emerged. Full names of crime victims are customarily withheld in German media to protect their privacy.

“I am awaiting death,” Rokstan wrote on her WhatsApp profile shorty before her death. “But I am too young to die.”

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

The Iranian regime’s defense minister who had been involved in hostage taking and terrorism is visiting Moscow for talks about closer military cooperation.

Officials in Iran announced Monday that the regime in Tehran would spend another $8 billion on the purchase of Russian arms.

The Iranian regime has already handed Moscow a shopping list and the visit by Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan should speed up a number of key arms deals, RT reported.

"Iran would like to buy Russia's latest S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft missile system, developed by Almaz-Antey. And they make no secret of it. On the eve of his visit to Moscow Dehghan openly said to Iranian media they want to purchase the S-400s," the report said quoting sources of the business daily Kommersant.

Days after a preliminary nuclear agreement between the Iranian regime and six world powers, the United Nations adopted a resolution on July 20 forbidding Iran’s regime from purchasing conventional arms for the next five years.

According to the Interfax news agency, the second important topic of the talks in Moscow is Tehran’s possible procurement, or even a licensed production of the new Russian Sukhoi Su-30SM multi-role fighter.

Dehghan's arrival in Moscow Monday comes a month after Iran’s regime received billions of dollars’ worth of sanctions relief when its nuclear deal with world powers went into effect.

Hossein Dehghan, Hassan Rouhani's defense minister, has been among the “student followers of the Imam [Khomeini]” who took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979 and took 52 American diplomats hostage. He also helped found Hezbollah in Lebanon.

He has been one of the architects of the 1983 terror bombing that killed 220 U.S. Marines and 21 other service members in Beirut, Lebanon.

The opening of a cultural and sports center by the Iranian regime in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk has sparked fears that the clerical regime is trying to gain a foothold in a city already torn by ethnic-religious tensions.

The opening of the $400,000 center is sparking a wave of criticism in this mainly Kurdish area from people who oppose Tehran’s growing interference in the affairs of Iraq.

Iran has opened five cultural centers in Iraq since 2003, including one in Baghdad which opened in June 2015, according to analysts, VOA reported.

Kamaran Kirkuky, a member of Kirkuk’s Provincial Council, told VOA that he was concerned that the center was going to be used for “other purposes.”

“Iran can’t help Iraq and Kurdistan,” he said. “We have learned from experience that Iran’s projects don’t provide anything good.”

Kirkuky said he was afraid that the Iraqi Shi’ite militia, known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), would increase their presence in Kirkuk by using the center.“Some members of PMF would have an active role in the center. Shi’ites in general have become very active in Kirkuk recently,” Kirkuky told VOA.

Al-Arbiya TV reporting on the opening of ‘Khomeini center' said: “The center is considered to be a base for recruiting Kirkuk’s youth to join the militias affiliated with Tehran, and it is associated with the Iranian Quds Force, which is supervised by Gen. Qassem Soleimani.”

A recent report by European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA) said: “Iran-backed paramilitary forces which operate as criminal groups or in the guise of popular mobilization forces are today the main cause of sectarian conflicts, killing and murder, ethnic cleansing and population displacement in Iraq. They are driving the country towards internal conflict and ultimate collapse. In addition, these groups have turned into mafia-style murderers, kidnappers, robbers and drug-traffickers.”

The report added: “The popular mobilization forces are now a tool in the hands of criminal elements such as Nouri al-Maliki, Hadi Al-Ameri, and Abu-Mahdi Mohandess, who are in turn the most important agents coordinating the destruction of Iraq, fuelling sectarian war and facilitating the emergence of DAESH.”

Hasan Jumma, a writer inside Kirkuk, told VOA that opening the center was a ‘shameful’ act and was ‘rejected’ by majority of writers, intellectuals, and journalists.

Jumma said there was already a cultural and sports center in the city and there was no need for letting Iran open a center under Khomeini’s name.

“This is an act of invading Kurdistan by opening up centers, schools, and medical clinics which will increase the cultural and political influence of Iran,” Hasan said.

SEOUL - United States Wednesday deployed four F-22 Raptor fighter jets in South Korea, in a new show of might against North Korea after a nuclear test and rocket launch by the regime of Kim Jong-un.

The fifth generation technology stealth fighters flew at low altitude over the airbase in Osan, 55 km (34 miles) south of Seoul, shortly after being sent to the Asian country, reported Yonhap news agency.

The deployment of the warplanes is an unusual action and indicates the allies' attempt to display muscle after the regime of Kim Jong-un carried out a nuclear test on Jan. 6 and on Feb. 7 launched a rocket, which is suspected to be a covert missile test.

The F-22 Raptor, a fighter jet of high strategic importance to the U.S. Army, is equipped with the most advanced technology, high ground attack capabilities and electronic warfare, and is difficult to detect on radar.

After his arrest, he confessed to the killing of two other elderly women, Kyodo news agency reported Tuesday.

The death of Ushizawa, 87, took place on Nov. 4, 2014, while those of the two other, aged 86 and 96 years (also thrown from a balcony of the same building), followed on Dec. 9 and Dec. 31 of that same year, respectively.

According to police investigation, Imai was in the center when the three deaths occurred and denied any involvement in the incidents till he was arrested.

Although initially the police had not associated the deaths with any criminal act, the death of the third victim had raised suspicions.

Japanese authorities began to investigate Imai in May last year, when he was detained on suspicions for having stolen $218 in cash from the room of a septuagenarian lady five months earlier, an incident over which he was fired from the facility.

An inspection carried out by local authorities had also revealed abuses against residents of the center.

EL PASO, Texas – A Mexican woman who said she was forced to remain locked up against her will in a Ciudad Juarez prison in a case of corruption there has applied for asylum in the United States, her attorney said.

Mariana Ibarra Moran, 21, decided to seek refuge in the U.S. because Mexican authorities would not guarantee her safety after she revealed the corruption taking place in the Juarez jail, said her attorney in El Paso, Carlos Spector.

That prison, the Social Rehabilitation Center, or Cereso, in Ciudad Juarez, will be visited Wednesday by Pope Francis.

Ibarra said she was forced to stay in the jail against her will following a conjugal visit on Feb. 6 because her former partner, Jesus Eduardo Soto Rodriguez, alias “El Lalo,” convicted of kidnapping, bribed the guards to keep her there.

“They didn’t let her go because he (Jesus Eduardo Soto Rodriguez) didn’t want them to. It was then that her family went to the press and demanded her release,” Spector told EFE. “After that, they filed a complaint about gender violence, and it was then that the nightmare began.”

The attorney said that this is the strongest case for political asylum he has seen in 25 years, since the woman is “the victim of domestic violence in the prison, in collusion with Cereso officials.”

He said the case combines all the aspects and possibilities needed to obtain political asylum in the United States, because this is a woman who has been the victim of abuse by her partner who kept her captive in jail with the consent of the authorities.

Among the woman’s other revelations, according to Spector, was the fact that inmates have access to the Internet, which allows them to continue working for organized crime from inside the prison.

The young woman decided last Wednesday to seek asylum in the United States together with her 6-month-old child, her sister and her mother, the attorney said.